2020 end-of-year achievement report

2020 End-of-Year Achievement Report

Prepared for the Internet Society Board of Trustees

March 2021

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Growing the Internet

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Projects: Building Community Networks Fostering Infrastructure and Technical Communities Measuring the Internet

Growing the Internet

2020 was an amazing year for a bigger and better Internet!The three Internet Growth Projects overcame COVID-19 challenges through teamwork and innovation. • The Community Network (CN) team helped more CNs connect people, held successful “virtual”

summits in Africa, Asia, and North America, and changed the minds of policy-makers so that they embraced and supported CNs in a range of policy and regulatory documents.

• InfraComDev beat training goals, improved over 26 existing IXPs and changed the minds of policy-makers who were trying to regulate them. We learned it is hard to build new IXPs in a pandemic.

• The new Measuring the Internet team launched a platform that tracks the health of the Internet and shows governments why “shutdowns” are bad. We learned how to bring on new partners and how to pivot quickly when circumstances force change.

Some Questions to Consider in 2021:• How do we find more efficient ways to work online with our communities?• How do we better scale our work with our Community?• How do we communicate better with our Community and show them the impact our projects

have had so that they become an even stronger advocacy voice?

32020 EOY Achievement Report

Portfolio Year-End Summary

Building Community Networks (CNs)

1. Engage with our Chapters, Organization Members, individual members, partners, and colleagues

2. Bring on more partners at global, regional, and local levels, such as existing community networks, international financial and governmental institutions, and governmental entities, and individual experts

3. Hold five regional Summits and one Global Summit to continue to build and sustain CNs and communities of practice

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AP 2020 Goals


Building Community Networks - continued

Objective Success Measures 2020 Targets 2020 Actuals

Bridge the connectivity gap through the

development and support of Community

Networks and the communities that sustain

them

Number of new and existing CN deployments developed and supported

by ISOC10 total 25

Number of entities that changed policies, regulations, or projects to support CNs 5 7

Number of individuals trained in network deployment and operations 300 308


Targets vs. Actuals

Building Community Networks - continued

• Despite the COVID19 Pandemic, the team stepped-up to achieve and exceed the project goals for 2020. We successfully re-imagined face-to-face (F2F) events into virtual training and community-building events and community engagement. As such we delayed in person Summits and a planned for Global CN Summit that were noted in AP 2020. We continued collaboration with partners at the global/regional/local levels to achieve our policy goals and to support our partners on the ground to keep connecting people to the internet where it is most needed.

• Deployments [Bold = New CN]: Georgia, Greece, Italy, Ethiopia, Uganda, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe, India, Pakistan, New York, New Jersey, TorontoMesh, SeattleMesh, Baltimore/DC Mesh, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Belize, Trinidad & Tobago, Dominica, St. Vincent & Grenadine, Guyana, Galapagos

• Policy changes that enable CNs in: G20 Ministerial declaration, Ethiopia regulatory authority (ECA), ITU (ITU-D and WTPF Sec Gen Report), Brazil (Regulator Anatel), CITEL (Recommendations for rural connectivity), Uganda, Kenya

• People trained: Trained over 70 chapters through Wireless 4 Communities ISOC-IEEE training materials -- 174 people completed training in Spanish and 22 in English, partnering with CITEL (500 people enrolled and we could only accept 250); Indigenous communities summit trained 42 people


Year-End Summary

1. Support the creation of five new IXPs and strengthen 10 existing ones, particularly by developing and working with and through network operator groups (NOGs) and local Internet communities

2. Train hundreds of individuals in targeted geographies and communities around the world in face-to-face workshops and through our basic online network operations training course

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Fostering Infrastructure & Technical CommunitiesAP 2020 Goals



Develop communities that build and enable a

more resilient and affordable Internet

New and Existing IXPs Developed or Leveled-up

New IXPs: 5

Existing IXPs: 12

0

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Number of partnerships to support IXPs 10 20

Number of individuals taking our NetOps

training300 612


Fostering Infrastructure & Technical Communities - continuedTargets vs. Actuals

Fostering Infrastructure & Technical Communities – continued

• Covid-19 impact

• Pros: As a result of the pandemic, virtual engagements increased our reach to new communities and individuals.

• Cons: The pandemic hindered our ability to deliver on goals that are dependent on in-person human interaction, such as ‘Deployment of a new IXP’.

• Important Lesson - Leveraging cross-regional expertise, interaction and collaboration catalyzed the project’s ability to deliver on its goals and objectives globally.


Year-End Summary

1. Establish a community of interest around collecting and contributing data to support collaborative Internet measurement results.

2. Develop initial set of metrics, associated measurement methodologies, data sources, and partners

3. Develop web-based dashboard and launch for public consumption

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Measuring the InternetAP 2020 Goals


Measuring the Internet – continued


Provide a platform that consolidates trusted third-party Internet measurement data from various sources into a single platform

Web-based interactive Platform developed for targeted users

Platform launched

Public launch occurred on December 2nd

Number of project-specific partnerships with various

measurement groups4 partnerships

5 partnerships

(CAIDA, Mozilla, AccessNow, M-Lab, AFRINIC)

Number of Use Cases developed 4 Use Cases 4 Use Cases

developed


Targets vs. Actuals

Measuring the Internet

• A challenging year for all the obvious reasons, plus challenges with resourcing the team.

• Despite the COVID-related challenges, the team worked hard to develop the partnerships necessary to get Release 1.0 of the platform launched as planned in Q4.

• Two out of four focus areas (“Enabling Technology” and “Internet Shutdowns”) were developed and launched as part of Release 1.0 of the platform. The remaining two (“Internet Resilience” and “Internet Way of Networking”) will be included in Release 2.0 of the platform, planned for the end of 2021.

• Issues with trademarked branding were identified late in the process and resolved by March 1, 2021 with support from the community.

• Feedback from the community has been overwhelmingly positive to date.


Year-End Summary

Projects: Promoting the Internet Way of NetworkingExtending Encryption Securing Global Routing Increasing Time Security Leading by Example with Open Standards and Protocols

Strengthening the Internet

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Strengthening the Internet

2020 was a remarkable year for a Strong Internet!• ISOC’s 5 Strong Internet Projects in 2020 were successful despite the challenging year• Routing Security continued to evolve from previous years, and two projects, IWN and

Encryption, jumped aggressively out of their adolescence into adulthood• We had remarkable success in the area of open source web standards, closing out that

project (OSE) and transitioning activities to maintenance and training.• Time Security saw the growth of a test bed, best practices, and a community website,

although we decided not to continue with secure time as a dedicated 2021 project.• Some questions to consider:• Challenges: we’ve relied on in-person interaction to connect with our community; we’ve

had to stumble along like others in creating effective, compelling interactions• Working in a new structure internal to ISOC took some organization and automation

• Lessons learned: • While we can count “things we do” as measures of success, we’ll be moving to measures

that instead assess change in the world we seek to make



1. Continue work from past years to more clearly and compellingly describe the core technical properties of the Internet

2. Build a strong understanding and interest around the Internet way of networking within the Internet Society community and foster enhanced relationships with key partners and communities

3. Test our approach with specific pieces of proposed legislation, such as the European Union Digital Services Act, and will undertake targeted outreach

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Promoting the Internet Way of Networking (IWN) AP 2020 Goals



Lead a positive vision for a decentralized “IWN”

IWN Framework Media Mentions (high-tier) 3 9

Number of IWN Use Cases and policy submissions completed that “exercise” the Framework 5 7

ISOC Community engagement 200 ~650

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Promoting the Internet Way of Networking – continued


Targets vs. Actuals

Promoting the Internet Way of Networking – continued

• The IWN project was created through the merger of 5 separate projects proposed for 2020, and a key success has been the creation of a coherent narrative and approach through the IIAT – which is now a pillar of the organization’s advocacy

• The IIAT has enabled a principled approach for analysing policies and technological change. This has proven valuable to the organization’s own advocacy and the work of staff (e.g. on Section 230 and the DSA, WeChat Amicus Brief), but also to our community that have already incorporated it in their local efforts (e.g. Brazil and DC Chapters)

• The work and assessment approach has also resonated outside the ISOC community. Not least in the media (for which the target was far exceeded), but also among policy makers and other partners seeking to conduct impact assessments on their own policies (e.g. PNG, Peru, and the US); this is in line with the project’s long-term vision: for the IIAT to help scale ISOC’s work towards our strategic goals

• 2020 has set the foundations for future success, not least through an inclusive consultation process with our community; key challenges going forward are to enhance the capacity of our diverse community’s use of the toolkit, and further connect the IIAT and the organization’s strategic goals


Year-End Summary

1. Develop a compelling narrative that advances end-to-end encryption against threats such as exceptional access

2. Create a diverse and engaged global network of coalitions with participants aligned with our goals and efforts

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Extending EncryptionAP 2020 Goals


Extending Encryption – continued


Promote and protect strong encryption

Number of individuals equipped for encryption

advocacy75 95

Number of Global Encryption Coalition Members and

engagement level

100 Members

40% engagement

119 members

67% engagement

Mitigate government attacks on encryption in target

countries75% 100%


Targets vs. Actuals

Extending Encryption

• We started the year planning to promote and defend encryption by

• Profiling our audiences• Building our messaging/narrative and a foundation of thought leadership material• Recruiting, equipping and mobilizing a community (via ISOC and a Global Encryption

Coalition)

• We accomplished those goals and, in the process:

• Built this foundation while mitigating threats around the world• Set ourselves up as coalition leaders and thought leaders • Built a rapid response capacity, along with allies who can amplify impact (having a

few close, trusted allies really helps)• Found new ways to do broader advocacy (in conjunction with all ISOC quadrants) –

guest blogs/op-ed placements, chapter training/initiatives (including guest speaker Theorose during the December InterCommunity), leveraging partners’ work (GPD world encryption map)

• We’re now set to continue to grow and mobilize the community for even bigger impact in 2021


Year-End Summary

1. Double MANRS membership and include new kinds of organizations, such as Content Delivery Networks (CDNs)

2. Leverage MANRS Observatory as a production service, incorporating information about IXPs and improving data quality and sustainability

3. Include MANRS Observatory as part of the onboarding and conformance checks of participating operators

4. Continue outreach around MANRS, including with new MANRS Community Ambassador and road show programs

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Securing Global Routing (MANRS)AP 2020 Goals


Securing Global Routing – continued


Improve security and stability of Internet

Routing by developing a credible mark of

technical excellence, underpinned by a security baseline,

defined by “Actions”, a vibrant operators community and a

sustainable governance model

Number MANRS participants;

Number in new CDN & Cloud Program

400 MANRS participants;

5 participants in new CDN & Cloud

Program

588 MANRS Participants;

16 CDN & Cloud Providers 510 Network Operators

62 IXPs

Number of MANRS training workshops

provided to IXP and ISP community; Number of people completed the

workshop

3 by MANRS team

200 people trained

Workshops:14 by MANRS team

58 by Training Ambassadors and Fellows

People Trained:349+ by MANRS team

1,400+ by Training Ambassadors and Fellows

MANRS Advisory Group established (Deliverable)

MANRS Advisory Group is

established

MANRS Advisory Group constituted in Q1-2020 and met

3 times throughout the year


Project Success Measures - Targets vs. Actuals

Securing Global Routing – continued

The rate of MANRS' growth is accelerating. More and more organizations recognize the value of MANRS and join the initiative to show their commitment to improving routing security:• We added 271 new participants, nearly doubling the number this year.• 16 CDN & Cloud Providers contributed to the launch and development of the new

Programme. Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Cloudflare, Verisign, and others promoted MANRS Actions online.

• We signed MoUs with 5 new Project Partners. All 16 partners actively supported the initiative in 2020.

• Juniper publicly endorsed the idea of starting a new MANRS Programme for Vendors.As more partners and participants join MANRS, they amplify our message: • We added 938 new Twitter followers in 2020 (2,057 total).• Articles about MANRS were published in magazines including WIRED, SAMENA Trends,

CommsDay.• On average, we have seen more than 20% increase in unique users and page views.

We were able to quickly adapt to the new way of working in Q2 and execute our work fully-online including:• 130+ Workshops and Events for MANRS and ISOC Community • 6-month Ambassador and Fellow Program• MANRS Advisory Group meetings and decision-making


Year-End Summary

1. Deploy the first implementations of network time security and make initial materials to help others in their deployments available

2. Establish metrics and an associated measurement infrastructure to track future deployment

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Increasing Time SecurityAP 2020 Goals


Increasing Time Security – continued


Support the implementation and

deployment of secure network time protocols

The Time Security Test Bed is launched

(Deliverable)Test Bed is launched

ISOC testbed is launched with 5 NTS enabled public NTP

servers in three separate locations.

Number presentations and test/interop events 8 8

Network Time Protocol Best Current Practice guidelines published

(Deliverable)

BCP guidelines document is published

BCP guidelines document on

networktimesecurity.org


Targets vs. Actuals

Increasing Time Security – continued

Significant standards finalized in 2020: • IEEE 1588:2019 Precision Clock Synchronization Protocol, March 2020• RFC 8915 Network Time Security for the Network Time Protocol, October 2020

NTS deployment advanced: • We are in the very early phase of deployment for this technology. ISOC is currently

running some of the limited number of public servers available. Early experimental deployments exist, but general deployment is still some time away.

• Open source implementations of NTS are available and have varying levels of maturity. Guidance documentation has been developed based on experimentation.

• Commercial products are not available yet (hopefully 2021).Time Security Community development:

• Website established as a resource for ongoing community developmentTime Security Project closeout:

• Deployment work and technical community building will become part of InfraComDev• NTS Deployment Metrics and Measurement work will continue in Measurement


Year-End Summary

1. Deploy four reference servers using two major open source web servers, each with and without a Content Delivery Network (CDN), reflecting common approaches in the target audiences

2. Deliver easy-to-understand resources that include specific items such as webpages with step-by-step tutorials, but also assets such as video screencasts showing the precise configuration steps required

3. Publish documentation on Internet Society servers and promote documentation by publishing on platforms such as Github, StackExchange, and other community forums as well as by outreach to specific conferences and communities who are likely to adopt them

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Leading by Example with Open Standards and Protocols (OSE)AP 2020 Goals


Open Standards and Protocols (OSE) – continued


Help servers become more

secure and available using open Internet

standards

Number of deployed reference servers 4

5(4 planned servers plus 1 additional hosted server)

Number and overall % of ISOC corporate, chapter and SIG websites fully compliant with OSE

High % on the Internet.nl test suite.

(2020 was first year and so intent was to establish

a baseline target.)

Corporate: 4 at 100%, 18 at 97% or 95%

Overall: 93%

Community: 3 at 100%, 6 in 90s

Overall: 47%

Number of step-by-step instruction sets published

(Once we have documents published, we will switch to measuring # of people who

access documents.)

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4 sets of documentation published:

- Apache web servers- NGINX web servers- Apache with CDN- NGINX with CDN


Targets vs. Actuals

Open Standards and Protocols – continued

The OSE project began with four goals:1. ✅ BUILD a set of public demonstration web servers available to all.2. ✅ Provide step-by-step DOCUMENTATION and links to resources so that a website

administrator can set up their own systems in a similar way.3. PROMOTE this server ecosystem and documentation widely throughout the web,

developer, and open source communities. 4. ✅ LEAD BY EXAMPLE and ensure Internet Society websites follow our recommendations.

Three were accomplished. The fourth was planned for late Q3 / Q4 and was suspended after the project was not renewed in 2021.

The impact of the project at the end of 2020 is that: • We now have more secure and higher performance corporate websites.• Some of our Chapters have more secure and faster websites.• Documentation is now publicly available to help people in the public and our larger

community make their web servers more secure and faster.• We succeeded in energizing individual and Chapter members around Internet security.• We helped accelerate the deployment of open standards in some areas of the Internet.


Year-End Summary

Building our Community, Extending our Voice

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Strategy, Communications, and EngagementContent and Marketing CommunicationsCommunity EngagementExternal Engagement Training & eLearning Planning, Reporting, Strategy & Impact Measurement

Building our Community, Extending our Voice

Our Operating Environment

The global pandemic in 2020 became an opportunity for us to promote the Internet effectively and we seized it. We focused on virtual engagements, which yielded results and brought broader audiences to ISOC. Despite difficult circumstances, we were able to mobilize significant external support and resources for the organization including funding and partnerships for projects and non-project activities.

Building Our Community

Healthy ISOC chapters (in good standing) increased significantly due to staff effort. Individual members continued to grow. Our organization members decreased due to various reasons including adverse economic conditions. Nevertheless, we were still successful in convincing new organizations to join ISOC. ISOC community members across all segments were interested in projects and other activities (particularly training-related), and we successfully enabled their participation and involvement in projects.

Extending Our Voice

ISOC received unusually high media visibility due to the proposed PIR-transaction. While PIR dominated media attention in Q1-Q2, we gained some high profile, top tier media attention in Q3-Q4 that focused exclusively on ISOC’s work. Our social media following also grew.

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Building our Community, Extending our Voice – continued

AP 2020 Goal #1 Undertake a focused, coordinated effort to understand the community’s interests better and improve our ability to connect interested community members with opportunities within projects

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AchievementsThe ISOC Community was encouraged to identify their projects of interest in Q1. The information was used throughout the year to send out targeted communication about project activities. We also carried out 5 community consultations and 2 consultative policy-development processes related to various areas of work. Feedback received was integrated into our work and shared back with the community via the newly developed Community Consultations Dashboard.

Key results• 53/90 (59%) of Organization Members got involved in projects [Target: 35% | Actual: 59%]• 60/122 (49%) of Chapters in good standing got involved in projects [Target: 40% | Actual: 49%]• 1871 individual members got involved in projects• 94/122 (77%) of Chapters in good standing participated in Chapter Training, which included project

content• 68% of 653 training participants implemented initiatives locally post-training in support of projects

AP2020 Goals and Accomplishments


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AP 2020 Goal #2 Mobilize community members to achieve shared objectives and enable them to become a part of a larger movement (for a bigger and stronger Internet)

Achievements

The ISOC community got involved in projects as a result of effective mobilization: See key results from Goal # 1 on project involvement by Chapters, Individual Members, and Organization Members.

Our Community members were regularly informed about opportunities for getting involved: Monthly newsletters went out to all individual members to keep them updated and informed. Average open rate: 26.5% across 8 editions, which is above the Association industry standard on average open rate ( 20-25%).

Our Community members received training to be better equipped to participate in the movement: We delivered 14 ISOC-led courses, 3 partner-led courses, and 44 learning events to our community.Our global Chapter training delivered 25 courses in 3 different languages.

Online campaigns were launched to showcase our Community’s involvement in the movement: We Are The Internet Society social media campaign aimed to inspire and cast a light on the people within our community, highlighting their contributions in building a bigger and stronger Internet. It helped drive traffic to our 2021 Action Plan, which received 11,322 clicks in 10 days. The campaign is still active today.I Heart The Internet campaign casted a positive spotlight on the Internet during the global pandemic. It gained momentum and evolved to became the theme and call to action for our 2020 Chapterthon where Chapters contributed “Do It Yourself” manuals and tutorials for activities that show how they are helping to ensure the Internet continues to be a lifeline, enriching people’s lives during COVID-19 and beyond.


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Achievements

Improvements were made in support of Individual MembersThe discovery phase for developing a plan for building Individual Membership was completed. The work will continue in 2021. Improvements were implemented from initial recommendations:• Improved sign-up experience and member service • Improved communication with members • Better understanding of our members via surveys

The Early Career Fellowships program is ready to launchWe completed the design phase of the Early Career Fellowship and secured 3 key partnerships. The Fellowship program will be launched in March 2021.

Reached agreement on approach to diversify the Organization Membership baseWe reached agreement on approach to focus on lower-tier membership (i.e. Copper, Bronze, Silver) to help diversify our membership base. A digital marketing campaign targeting these tiers will be launched in 2021.


AP 2020 Goal #3 Build a robust support base of new community members including digital natives and organizations whose business models rely on the Internet


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Achievements

We grew our partnerships We achieved a total of 26 MoU Partners around the world with the following geographic distribution: 7-Global; 6-Asia Pacific; 6-Latin America & Caribbean; 2-Europe; 3-Africa; 1-Middle East; 1 North America. Nearly half of them are new partners (12 | 46%). [Target: 11 | Actual: 12]. We successfully aligned 22 (85%) of them with projects [Target: 50% | Actual: 85%].

We aligned our Institutional Relationships with projectsWe aligned all of our IGO institutional relationships with projects [Actual: 22].We also aligned more than half of our relationships with academic institutions with projects [Actual: 17].

We raised funds for the organization We exceeded our aggregate fundraising target for funds sourced from the ISOC community: $1,964,130 (42% above target).We also exceeded our aggregate fundraising target for funds raised from non-ISOC community sources: $1,117,000 (265% above target) with 94% of the funds raised for projects. While our sponsorship revenue in this category was below target, the gap was more than adequately covered with grants.

Building our Community, Extending our Voice – continued AP 2020 Goal #4 Build partnerships, foster governmental and intergovernmental relations, and pursue fundraising opportunities at global, regional and national levels


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AP 2020 Goal #5 Undertake targeted programs to connect individuals to vibrant communities that help build the Internet including the ISOC Policy Fellows to the IETF and Youth at the Internet Governance Forum

Achievements

We delivered the Youth @ Internet Governance Forum Program621 young people applied for the program and 30 were selected. The IGF Youth Ambassadors received training and networking opportunities provided by three program sponsors and 7 partners. All the participants delivered briefs and plans for local projects that contribute to grow or strengthen the Internet.

We delivered the ISOC Policy Fellows @ IETF ProgramThe IETF Policy Program moved to a virtual format in line with the IETF Online meetings for the first time. Only the second edition of the program took place with 10 confirmed attendees who predominantly represented governments in telecom regulatory authorities and ministries.



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AP 2020 Goal #6Continue to spread the word broadly about the work of the Internet Society community and its partners towards our shared vision

Achievements

We received many feature and headline mentions in the mediaWe achieved 1417 feature and headline mentions (183% above target). Between Q1-Q2, the bulk of total mentions focused on the PIR-transaction with some attention paid to the topic of Internet resilience. Between Q3-Q4, we began to see more interest on bigger and stronger Internet topics.

We received a high number of media inquiriesWe received a high number of inbound media inquiries (53 inquiries | 65% above target) including from top tier outlets (e.g., CNET, WSJ, VOX/Recode, BBC, Wired, CNBC, Straits Times, The Telegraph, etc.) Specific project-related issues where we achieved high-profile, opinion-shaping coverage include: Encryption; IWN Internet Impact Assessment Toolkit; Speaking out against threats from China/Russia; and Section 230 Internet legislation in the USA.

Our social media following grew We grew our social media following by 16.7% (target: 15%) and ended with 80,513 social media followers. Growth occurred particularly on LinkedIn and Instagram and was primarily organic.




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AP 2020 Goal #7Revamp the Internet Hall of Fame and deliver the Postel Service Award and the Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS)

Achievements

Internet Hall of Fame (IHOF) Revamp of the IHOF program was completed. The work plan for the program has been streamlined with improved processes and procedures in consultation with the IHOF Advisory Board.

Postel Service Award (PSA) The 2020 Postel Service Award (PSA) was presented to Onno W. Purbo from Indonesia. 49 nominations were received (3 times more than 2019) as a result of expanded publicity channels and better integration of the PSA community within the ISOC community. Other improvements made included enhancement of the nomination procedures with better transparency of the selection process and focus on ISOC’s thematic areas of interest.

Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS)A premier academic research conference, NDSS is ranked among the top 5 security conferences in the world that address a wide range of topics on network and system security. NDSS 2020 was one of the biggest NDSS symposiums, featuring 88 peer-reviewed academic papers, 34 posters, 5 workshops, and 2 keynotes on key topics. Nearly 450 people participated in the event. In addition, NDSS brought in $61,000 in sponsorships ($38,000 from non-org members revenue).


Thank you.

internetsociety.org@internetsociety

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2020 end-of-year achievement report

Documents